Editorial Preface “Some industries are different but some are more different than others. The pharmaceutical industry fits the latter category” (Scherer 1996:336). There is really no other industry where the nature of the products, the economics of research and development as well as the market structure and the societal implications of the industry’s strategic decisions are as unique as in […] Read More

The tragic 9/11 events in 2001 implied a delay in the court proceedings in Boston that dealt with a case involving AstraZeneca and its blockbuster drug Losec (Prilosec in the US). The key basic patent for this drug had been received by the Swedish company Astra in the US in 1981 (US patent # 4.255.431, issued March 10, 1981). Astra […] Read More

ABSTRACT The CRISPR/Cas9 discovery has emerged as a powerful technology tool to edit genomes, which allows researchers, innovators and life science entrepreneurs to alter DNA sequences and modify gene function in a range of species. The simplicity, high efficiency and seemingly broad use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system has led to hopes that this disruptive technology may have the potential to […] Read More

Has Lord Neuberger in Actavis introduced “an amorphous general inventive idea” test to determine UK patent infringement by equivalents? Are “inessential integers”, once found extremely rarely , now to be embraced as part of normal UK practice? Have UK patent claims become “a puzzle game”? Read this article as a PDF

ABSTRACT Second medical use patents and their claims do not only represent highly valuable inventions for both originator and generic pharmaceutical companies, but have also been a topic of debate for many years. In particular, this is due to the fact that these inventions were originally not patentable under the European Patent Convention (EPC) in 1973 and thus required a […] Read More

ABSTRACT In order to stimulate product development and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, the United States Congress in 1984 enacted Title II of the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (Public Law 98-417), also known as the Hatch-Waxman Act. One goal of the Hatch-Waxman Act was to extend patent life to compensate patent holders for a portion of […] Read More

ABSTRACT Despite the therapeutical benefits of dosage regimes, being granted and securing patent protection for these types of inventions has always been difficult. Historically dosage regimes have generally been excluded from patent law as these were held to either lack industrial application or were caught by the medical methods exclusions arguing that these inventions unjustifiably imited the medical profession’s choice […] Read More